My niece is heading to JMU this fall and she is interested in taking up a martial art. She's had some aikido. She's played 3 sports in HS but had a serious knee injury which required surgery. I'm an experience external practioner but have had intro to internal kung fu while I was at VT. I suggested she take up H-sing I, Ba Gua, Tai Chi, etc. not just for the martial art asspect but for her knee as well. Can anyone tell me if they know of a good instructor in the JMU/Harrisburg,VA area? Thank You.

Hey, if she doesn't mind driving some a couple days a week she could come do Gao Bagua in Annandale. It's the best school in the area with real fighting bagua and xingyi from the yizong lineage. I have been training there for 10 months now, and have loved every minute. The school is Zong Wu Men, website is www.yizongbagua.com. We train safely to make our minds, bodies, and skills all stronger. I can answer most questions you would probably have if she is interested. It's a great school, George Wood, my teacher, is a really honest and straight-forward person who has an excellent complete working knowledge of the system and how it is taught and trained. No other school in the area really has anything near this good.
Jesse

Doesn't Ed Hampton (former student of Vince Black and several others) have a school in the area? Primarily Xingyiquan.

White Tiger something or other...will have to check my notes...but anyway, Ed is someone to seriously consider.

Hope that helps!

You don't have to tell me about Ed Hampton. I am a former student and friend of his. However he is in Blacksburg at Va Tech. Maybe he has a student teaching in the JMU area or perhaps he has moved. I haven't spoken to him in a couple of years. But you are right, he is the real deal and it his kind of instruction I am seeking for my niece, not somebody who learned off of a tape or from a book or something like that. Thank you for bringing him up. I do need to contact him. He might be able to give me some info (I feel stupid for not thinking of that before).

Pretty strange that I came across this post.

I just started taking Hsing-I at Ed Hampton's school. I went about 4 years ago but stopped after a short time. I just recently started it up again and don't plan to cop out this time [IMG]http://www.fightingarts.com/forums/ubb/smile.gif[/IMG]

They have a new location, new class structure (classes are now 90 minutes instead of 45 like they used to be). And are teaching a much wider range of martial arts (Karate, and Tae Kwan do mostly, and then you have the hsing-i people comming in late at night).

All I can say is while Dr. Hampton only drops in every once in a while, his students (our teachers) are excellent and when I move into the advanced classes someday I certainly look forward to more instruction from Dr. Hampton.

Your sister should transfer to VT [IMG]http://www.fightingarts.com/forums/ubb/smile.gif[/IMG]

Hardluck,

IMO your luck is not so hard if you are a student of Master Ed Hampton. In my 25 years of Martial Arts practice, he is among the best I've ever learned from. If you see this post please e-mail me at tiledoc@earthlink.net. I would like to hear more about what my old teacher is up to these days.
p.s. it was my niece, not my sister going to JMU. And yes I tried to sway her to Tech but she wanted JMU. At least she's not going to UVA.

I too trained with Dr. Hampton while I was in Blacksburg (15 years ago!) ... and in all my years of training have never learned more or felt as comfortable as I did in his classes.

When I was last in B'burg I passed his old studio to see if he was there - no luck. If anyone here has contact info I would greatly appreciate having it sent to me at archbassist@comcast.net. />
Thanks.